From the Kirkus review[1] of the book: "Raymond Kaiser, his wife Jewel, and her daughter from a previous marriage, RV, all quietly enjoy life in Biloxi, Miss., a "simple, easy, cheap" town on the Gulf Coast.

With work as an architect drying up, Ray finds himself increasingly interested in the glitzy world of offshore gambling, especially at the Paradise, where Jewel wins over $1,000 on their first trip.

Meanwhile, back home, RV seems headed into a downward spiral of teen rebellion--boy trouble, substance experimenting, and body piercings.

Maxing out a handful of credit cards, he finds himself over $35,000 in the hole, but still juiced by "the losses, the excitement, the hopes, the desperation, the high".

In their new simplicity, this besieged family finally finds that happiness is not in middle-class stability, nor in the quick fix of gambling's artificial Paradise, but in their everyday Edenic lives.